Abstract
Intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams (IRES) – waterways in which flow ceases periodically or that dry completely – are found worldwide, and their frequency and extent are expected to increase in the future in response to global climate change and growing anthropogenic demand for fresh water. Repeated wet–dry cycles generate highly dynamic settings within river networks composed of aquatic and terrestrial habitats, which act as evolutionary triggers for aquatic and terrestrial biota. Drying also alters functions and processes within river networks, with consequences for ecosystem services. Despite the emergence of promising conceptual and methodological developments, our understanding of the occurrence and diversity of organisms in these ecosystems is limited primarily due to their coupled aquatic–terrestrial characteristics. Novel genomic tools based on high‐throughput sequencing have the potential to tackle unanswered questions of pivotal importance to predict future change in IRES. Here, we outline why genomic tools are needed to assess these dynamic ecosystems from the population to the metacommunity scale, and their potential role in bridging ecological–evolutionary dynamics.
Highlights
Intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams (IRES) –waterways in which flow ceases periodically or that dry completely –are found worldwide, and their frequency and extent are expected to increase in the future in response to global climate change and growing anthropogenic demand for fresh water
Current IRES monitoring relies on the flowing phase, which ignores the key dynamics of these systems, including shifts between flowing, non-flowing, and dry phases
One method of analyzing eDNA samples is to use a species- specific approach, such as quantitative polymerase chain reaction, which can reveal the abundance of the marker gene for a target species (Hernandez et al 2020)
Summary
Local scales and their adaptations to the environment, spatial linkage of these populations and communities in the context of metapopulation and metacommunity ecology, and functional linkages across complex aquatic–terrestrial meta-ecosystems. The added value of using genetic tools to infer ecological and evolutionary processes in these unique and extreme ecosystems is presented through specific examples
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